Chrysanthemum
by OneDreamADay
Summary: Together they help each other to heal in their own way. And it's all because of the boy with the straw hat. AU
1. Black Rose: Nami

This got started by a random little plot bunny that entered my mind and won't leave until I had to write down. Then more ideas come along, so this developed into a full-blown story. Not all of the One Piece characters will be in here, unless I can find a valid and solid reason for their appearance.

* * *

><p><strong>Black Rose- <strong>_Sometimes the darkest red roses are called 'black roses'. Symbolizes death or to say farewell. They can send a positive message of rebirth and new beginnings._

- - - - - –

When she come to, all the the nine-year-old can feel is pain. It's everywhere and it makes the young girl cry out, alerting nearby nurses that she's awake. They ask questions, but all she can do is tell them over and over about the pain. One nurse gives her a pill to swallow.

The pain melts away away and she drifts off to sleep.

Her dreams are disjointed memories of the accident: A rainy night, her sister next to her, hold her hand as she slept, then of a scream and the feeling of being flipped upside down.

Then there is the sight if blood on concrete. Of a arm poking out the window.

She wakes up screaming.

After two weeks, the girl is moved from the ICU unit to the normal room. She shares a room with a blue-haired girl named Vivi. She holds a stuffed yellow duck in her hands. "What's your name?" Vivi inquires.

"..Nami."

- - - - - –

It's during her lunch that she meets him.

"Wanna be in my pirate gang?" He asks. "Vivi's in it, She's the princess of a land called Alabasta . And we're saving it from the evil pirates."

Vivi nods in agreement. "I play sometimes."

Nami looks at him. He has on straw hat and has a grin from ear to ear that makes his look almost idiotic. There's a scar under his eye. Mildly, Nami wonders how he got that.

"Maybe later."

"Aww.. C'mon, it'll be fun."

"Pretty please?"

Nami shakes her head.

"Luffy, don't push her to be in it. It won't be fun if you force someone to play."

The boy sighs in disappointment.. "Oh alright." Then a second later. "Hey Vivi, wanna see if Sanji's back yet?"

Vivi nods and hops off her bed, her stuffed duck in her arms as usual. She stops before leaving the room. "You sure you don't want to come with us?"

"I'm sure."

- - - - - –

_There's rain falling against the car as the family makes their way home. It's a quiet ride home and Nami feels herself drifting off to sleep.  
><em>

_Nojiko's already sleep next to her, the elder sister hand holding the younger sister's hand.. _

_Belle-mere says something in the driver seat, but she doesn't hear her. Lips move, though no sound comes out._

_Suddenly the car spins violently. Nami hears a scream, can't remember who it's from._

_She hits the ground hard. She tries to find her sister or her mother, but she can't call out to them. Her lips won't move. _

_So she says their names over and over in her mind, hoping either of them- both of them- are okay._

_(Bellemere Nojiko BellemereNojiko bellemerenojiko )_

"Nami wake up!"

The orange-hair girl eyes snap open. Her face feels wet and she realizes she's been crying in her sleep.

"You were having a nightmare." Vivi tells her. "You were screaming."

Vivi's face looks frightened. Nami mumbles out a weak apology_. _

She forces herself to stay awake that night. She doesn't want to deal with the nightmares.

- - - - - –

Luffy's back the next day, grin on his face. "Join my pirate crew!"

Nami tells him to go away. He looks a little hurt as he leaves, but not to upset._  
><em>

Nami doesn't want to play pretend. She wants to things to go back to normal.

To a time before she came to the hospital.

Before she got stuck with ugly scars marring her arms and legs.

Before Belle-mere and Nojiko died in that car accident.

Name hugs herself in a ball and cries.

There are footsteps and the feeling of something being placed on her head. Touching it revels to be a straw hat.

Surprised, Nami looks up to see Luffy there, an unreadable expression on his face. It's a mix between sadness, confusion and understanding.

It makes Nami break down into tears even more. Luffy just sits with her, rubbing her back but not saying much at all.

She wants to push him away from her; something to releases all of her grief on in a physical manner.

Instead, she cries harder.

- - – - -

The next day, when Luffy pokes his head in her room as asks if she wants to join his pirate crew, she agrees.

On the condition that she can keep whatever treasure they can find.

- - - - - –

**Slow start, I know! Of course I will continue this. Reviews help so I know if I'm doing anything wrong.**


	2. Petunia: Ace

Not much to say for this chapter, except that it focuses on Ace. I had fun writing this chapter.

Review response:

Kiki-sama: Thanks for the review. And thank for being a loyal reader for all of my stories. Like I said before, not all of the character will show up. But a good chunk of the main cast will.

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><p><strong>Petunia- <strong>_These flowers __have several, somewhat contradictory, meanings. Along with resentment and anger, they can also indicate "your presence comforts me."_

- - - - - –

When Ace walks to the room coming from another therapy meeting, there are two sheets of paper on his bed. It's in Luffy's handwriting: sloppy, misspellings, and written unevenly (_does Luffy even know what the blue lines on lined paper are for?) _It reads:

'

1. You're not allowed to fall asleep on purpose in therapy and say it was a narcolepisictic attack.

2. You can't say it's a accident when it's not either.

3. Narcolepisicticis not contagious. Stop telling other people it is.

4. Just because we were raised by a thief doesn't mean you can swear all the time.

5. You can't set stuff on fire just because you're bored.

6. You can't steal food from the kitchen and not share. Speically if it's meat.

P.S.: Sabo was a nicer brother than you.

Ace's response is placed on Luffy's bed the following day.

1. It's spelled narcoleptic.

2. You can't prove that it's not an accident.

3. Not my fault Usopp and Chopper believe everything someone tells them.

4. You're jealous that swearing doesn't make you look as cool as me.

5. Sure I can.

6. Don't tell Gramps everything I've done. Maybe I'll share food with you.

7. Stop going near the swimming pool when you know you'll sink like a hammer.

8. Stop being such a crybaby.

P.S. Sabo wasn't a big pain like you.

Ace isn't in the mood to deal with his younger brother right now. So he sneaks out while the nurses are busy with trying to round-up the children for lunch. He walks to the wooded area nearby, where he had a pile of dry leaves ready. Thoughts roll around in his head as Ace plays with the lighter in his pocket absentmindedly.

The autumn breeze helps strokes the fire. Ace watches the leaves burn with mild amusement and can feel the tension leave his body. He tries not to let Luffy's note bother him, primarily not the last part (_Sabo was a nicer brother than you)_ but it won't go away and it frustrated Ace that Luffy doesn't even try to understand what he's going through.

"_You have to watch over Luffy. He's our little brother, and a bit of a crybaby. But I'm sure he'll be fine with you."_

Ace is pretty sure Sabo would tell him how bad he's screwing up if he was here.

- - - - - –

Ace avoids going to the therapy session. Not that he still isn't trying avoid Luffy (although they share a room and that would be impossible) but because he feels like they are a waste of time. It's on the hospital roof where Dr. Nico finds him.

She doesn't say anything at first and Ace isn't going to start this conversation because he wants to left alone, which no one seems to understand.

"Your brother is look for you." She states in a calm voice.

"So what? I don't want him following me around all the time. He's a second shadow."

"He's nine-years-old. Younger siblings tend to do shadow the older siblings at that age."

"Well tell him to stop. Besides, seems like he's having fun playing his pirate game lately. He can be busy with that and stop bothering me."

"Luffy's worried about you. He thinks you blame him for the fire."

"He was sleep when it happened, the idiot. How can he blame himself for something that not even his fault?"

"You'll be surprised how often the younger brother takes the blame the older brother did. Particularly when the younger hates seeing the elder in pain."

Ace lets this mull over in his head for a moment. "So Luffy blame himself because he doesn't like that I'm the one who started it?"

Dr. Nico places her hand on his shoulder. Ace wants to shrug it off; though he doesn't. "No one says it was your fault."

Ace balls up his hands. "But it is though. It fucking is. I'm the one who was playing with the lighter that night. I'm the reason why me and Luffy are stuck in this stupid hospital and we're probably both crazy. I'm a pyromaniac, and I caused that damn fire that killed Sabo."

The black haired boy has tears running down his face, but he doesn't wipe his away. "I killed our brother. Luffy should hate me."

"So you want him to?"

Ace can't answer that question, doesn't even know if he wants to. So instead he says, "If Luffy wasn't here, I think I would have gone crazy a couple of months ago."

- - - - - –

Ace is up at night when he hears the first of the whimpers start from his brother's bed. Wordlessly, he climbs in next to Luffy and whispers words of comfort until the younger boy calms down.

For as insane as Luffy drives Ace, the older brother is glad that he has his little brother around. They only have each other right now, and Ace knows that he needs Luffy as much as Luffy need him.

* * *

><p><strong>Angst, much? Can you tell that I like to mental torture characters?<strong>

**The some of the rules that Luffy writes for Ace didn't come from me. Credit goes to elvenarchess and her story **_Second Division Prohibitions. _** She was nice enough to let me use them. (I did re-word them to make it work for this story though. )Her story is definitely worth the read (and it's insanely funny.)**


	3. Nightblooming Cereus: Usopp

This was going to be a chapter for Zoro, but... I can't seem to find the right flower theme for him. So it's Usopp's chapter instead. I was supposed to have this posted up a couple of days ago, but (along dealing with personal matters) I'm was at my father's house with limited internet access. So I decided to give you guys a longer chapter (or tried to, at least) in apology for having a late update.

Thanks to: becket PrettyKitty126 and Kurayami Angel for adding this their favorite/alert. Makes me glad to know I have readers interested in this.

Review response:

Kurayami Angel: Thanks you for your review! Using flowers as a motif was something I had been thinking about for a while. But it's tricky finding themes that fit into the chapters and with the characters.

Kiki-sama: Yeah, poor Ace. Sadly, I'm not done with him yet. As for your question: probably.

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><p><strong>Nightblooming Cereus- <strong>_ Flower__s that bloom on some type of desert cacti. Known for the flowers that bloom after night fall and in the morning, are in the_ _process of wilting. Symbolizes the fragility of time._

- - - - - –

Usopp hates hospitals. He hates them with every fiber his eleven-year-old body can muster. He hates coming to see his mother and know it might be the last time he sees her alive.

Today, he avoids going to her room. It's not that he doesn't want to see his mother, but rather, he can't bear to see how much she gasps just to take a breath. Or the way her skin looks thin and pale. He pretends that he doesn't hear the nurses agree to that she's alive this long is nothing sort of a miracle.

He sees Luffy, along with the brown haired boy, Tony, though he's affectionately known as Chopper. With a name as weird as that, Usopp is pretty sure Luffy came up with it. He's knows why Chopper is here (something to do with growth treatment) but every time Usopp asks the straw hat boy for the reason why he's remained in the hospital so far, all he gets is a grin or a very vague answer that makes no sense.

The boys are currently continuing with the pirate game started over a month ago. (_Has he really been coming here that long?_) He sees Sanji nearby, fawning as usual over Vivi and Nami. Zoro's off by himself, snoring loudly in the corner, along with Ace. Everything's as normal as it could be, considering it's a room full of kids who all have their own issues to deal with (and probably aren't dealing with them in a good way.)

Vivi just came out of surgery a couple of days ago and Sanji's doing his best to make her comfortable. Usopp thinks she's the strongest of all of them. She was born with a weak heart, he found out, but she seemed to make up for it in sprint. She's the one who can quickly pull everyone together in an effort for something and the only to make Zoro and Sanji in less than a minute (unlike Nami, who often resorts to violence to make them stop.)

"Hey, Usopp! Come join me and Chopper!" Luffy calls out in his over enthusiastic voice, his voice so loud it carries in the room. Zoro tells him to shut up before dozing off again. "It'll be fun," Luffy continues, as if he never heard Zoro. Which is probably true. "You can help do pirate stuff." When Usopp asks what pirate stuff consists of, the black haired- boy shrugs. "Like raiding and stuff I guess. We can go raid the kitchen again."

"Did you get caught last time?" Ace asks, up from his newest narcoleptic fit. Usopp wants to stay as far from Ace as possible, to avoid catching his narcolepsy. The freckled boy did say it was contagious.

"Yeah, but this time they want. I got a fool prove plan this time." He says with that wide grin of his.

- - - - - –

Sanji snorts. "So what's this great fool-prove plan this time?"

They're standing outside of the kitchen doors now. Usopp is pretty sure they're going to get caught this time, and he'll have to explain to his dad the overly crazy idea Monkey D. Luffy got the small group caught up in this time.

Luffy lets out a humming noise, then "Dunno."

Vivi and Nami let out a sigh.

Sanji says something unintelligible.

Zoro merely shrugs his shoulders.

Ace looks unsurprised.

Usopp and Chopper are left speechless.

Ace cuffs his brother on the head. "Idiot, what happened to that great fool proof plan you had?" He asks in a loud whisper, although there's no need to; the kitchen is usually slow in the afternoon after lunch when the staff takes their break.

"Well, I though I'd have a plan by the time we got here. Guess it didn't work." He grins and laughs. "It's fine anyways. Good pirates don't have plans."

"What are we after anyways?" Usopp asks. "If we're going after just the meat I'm.."

"We're not. Cook made cupcakes today. I want 'em."

"Idiot. Why can't you just wait for dinner. It's for dessert. Besides, you just annoy the cooks." Usopp doesn't know why Sanji brings this up; he's never stopped Ace and Luffy from raiding the kitchen before and he's often joined them on multiple occasions. (Mainly with Ace. Luffy's "plans" are usually surreptitious and poorly thought out. Ace plans his raids to a degree.)

For whatever reason why the blond boy is trying to back out of this, it doesn't change Luffy's mind, and the young boy charges in the kitchen and steals the first tray of the prepared treats. He joins the group with a huge smile of his face. "That was easy."

'It's easy because there is no one there to watch out for, dummy." Ace mutters. He teals the next tray of cupcakes.

The group takes the stolen loot to an empty room and enjoys them. Usopp goes back to grab some cups and drinks. Even though they don't have enough cups and have to share; even though the room is a bit cold an damp feeling, nevertheless everyone has fun and joke around with each other.

When they hear the cook' yell (_"Damn kids are at it again!"_) followed by a string of curse words, all of them break down in laughter.

"Hey Vivi, these one got your name on it." Chopper hold out the cupcake and sure enough, it's her name, written in blue icing. Underneath it, the words 'Happy' are written out.

"Huh." Luffy says, sounding interested, but Usopp has a feeling he's not really. "Why's that?"

"Probably because it's was for my birthday tomorrow."

There's silence for a while, then all of them explode into comments at once.

"How come you didn't tell us?"

"We could of saved them for tomorrow!"

"No wonder the cook was so mad at us."

"Shitty cook probably gonna kill us."

"I don't see what the big deal is, they can make more."

"It's for her birthday, idiot! What if someone ate all of your birthday cake?"

Ace lets out a snore.

But Vivi is laughing. "It's fine. I like it like this anyways. I have all my friends here and I'm having fun, so it's okay."

Usopp sees Luffy and Chopper busy doing something on Ace's sleeping face. He moves over to see that they are currently trying to connect-the-dots with his freckles, marker in hand. Usopp offers some advice.

"If you connect them this way, they look like a star."

- - - - - –

Despite all her recovery progress, two days later, Vivi falls sick.

They all sit next to her bed, wishing her well, but unable to do much more. The nurses tries to reassure them. "Don't worry, it's just a setback. It happens once in a while. She'll get better soon."

Usopp is skeptical. He's seen this situation before (it's happening right now, on the 3rd floor and in room 313)

and he wants to believe with all his might that Vivi will get better. So, like with his mother, he starts telling stories.

He tells over the wall stories that can easily be called bullshit on (which Sanji, Zoro and sometimes Nami have often done. But it's rarely done.)

After another week, Vivi gets worse, not better.

There a subtle change in all of them. Luffy's not as rambunctious; Zoro and Sanji aren't fighting as much. Usopp finds that he can't be in the hospital period now. It's almost as if accepting what he wants to avoid the most; that he might lose people that mean a lot to him.

On the day of his mother's funeral, Usopp is inconsolable.

He thinks of Vivi, fighting in the hospital, and he breaks down crying because he knows what's doing to happen before anyone does.

He might lose a friend -one of his only friends- in that hospital.

When Usopp shows up at the hospital three days after his mother's funeral (_though there is no real reason for him to keep coming, Usopp realizes he's probably can't stop being friends with Luffy and the others, even if he tried_) the room where he usually met everyone in is strangely quiet, and only have of them are there; only Chopper, Nami and Sanji are there.

"What wrong?" He asks. A part of him already knows, however.

Sanji tells him.

- - - - - –

A couple days after they went to Vivi's funeral, everyone's in the cafeteria during lunch, though everyone seems to be lost in their own thought and it unnerves Usopp a bit to see everyone quiet. He tries to strike up a conversation, though he gets weak responds. Disappointed, Usopp picks at his lunch.

That is, until Luffy comes to the table and manages to scarf down his meal in record time. Then attempted to steal food from everyone else plate.

There's a reaction of everyone and Luffy just laughs as they all yell at him not to steal food from others plates.

"But I'm still hungry." He offers in way of protest, before stealing Sanji's sandwich and running before the blond boy can kick him.

Usopp wonders if he's the only on who notices this: Whenever they start to brood too much, it's Luffy who will come out of nowhere, doing something that ultimately frustrates everyone and completely diverts their attention. He asks Luffy about this one day.

"I don't think Vivi would want us to be sad all the time." The raven haired boy tells him. "I miss her a lot; she was a friend. But it's like what Gramps tells Ace all the time: 'If you stay in the past, you will never movie forward. Time's too short.'" He recites, with a nod.

Usopp sometimes has a hard time believe that it's Luffy -the boy who gives the the most empty-headed look at times and chooses to pick his nose when he's getting yelled at- who is speaking wisely now.

For a moment, Usopp wants to ask how Luffy felt when his brother died. He wants to know if the straw boy felt what he is feeling now.

But the long-nosed boy understand doesn't; instead he nods at the boy's words.

With that, Luffy has a wide grin on his face again. "Wanna go do something fun?"

He knows whatever Luffy has in mind is probably going to get in trouble somehow, but Usopp agrees anyhow.

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><p><strong>I feel like I could have ended this a bit better. Reviews are appreciated. <strong>

**Chapters are slowly starting to get longer. An achievement for me, since I'm usually keep them short. Update schedule will probably be every 3-4 days, and hopefully I can stick to it. Keeping a regular posting schedule has always been a problem for me. **


	4. Asters: Sanji

Not much to say. Another chapter that gave me a bit of trouble. Some people seemed upset that I killed off Vivi in the last chapter. All I can say is... They'll probably hate me more by the time this story is done. I might keep the chapter short though from now on. I felt like all the last chapter was mostly padding.

And sorry for the late update; been working on a couple different stories.

Review response:

Clementine: Thanks for thinking so! As a writer, it makes me happy to hear. Yes, I did do some research, so it's grounded.

Kiki-sama: Glad you liked the characterization. And, yes, I was when writing the last chapter, so maybe that's why it's one of the more emotion filled chapter.

Dubbious: I'm glad this caught you attention. More will be revealed as the chapters go on.

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><p><strong>Asters-<strong> _Greek for 'star__'. In France, Asters were placed on the graves of French solders to symbolize the wish that things h_a_s turned out differently. _

_- - - - - –_

Nami's the first one to leave.

Sanji's sad to see her go and tries not to make a big deal of it. He gives her a few parting gifts and tells her not to forget about him (_"What about us, you ass?" He hears the others yell in the background)_ She laughs and promises she won't (_She hasn't broke that promise. Nami often visits every two weeks._)

The next to leave is the marimo, Zoro. Although Sanji's not that upset, it's a bit boring not having anyone to verbally spar with. It's a surprise when the moss head comes with his foster sister, Kuina, a week and half later. Immediately, the two start arguing and Sanji starts trying to kick him (_with his good leg_) and it takes everything Sanji has to hide the smirk of satisfaction on his face. He think he sees one on the moss head's face too, but doesn't say anything.

Usopp, like Nami, comes to visit once in a while, and the first thing he starts of with is a blatant lie of a story about a goldfish with poops the size of small islands. Luffy and Chopper hang on every word.(S_anji smirks and Ace naps away and it's almost like nothing changed_)

Chopper is next to be released, although he was never officially in the hospital anyways_. _But since his caretaker is a hospital staff member they're able to see him almost everyday in the afternoon when he gets out of school, so it's not that big of a change.

It's Luffy who pouts about it. Most of the other kids can't really handle Luffy's eager, unending energy like their group can, and it's often Ace's and Sanji's job to keep Luffy occupied in some way so that he won't cause any trouble. That's usually a feat in itself, since the boy seems to attract trouble.

But today, the two of them are in luck. The younger D. brother is sleep, having worn himself out, surprisingly. Sanji wasn't even sure if such a thing was possible. When Ace tells him he's going for a walk. Sanji knows where they boy is going and comes with him. Ace makes a noise as if he annoyed by this, but the blond ignores it and blames it on the freckled boy's ever increasing mood swings.

He watches Ace do the same thing he's done since he's arrived almost three months ago. Sanji takes out a cigarette he lifted off of the crappy geezer and hold it to the flames, letting it light and taking a long drag from it. Ace watches him. "Why the hell do you smoke?"

"Why the hell do you set fires?" Sanji shoots back. Ace doesn't answer, not that Sanji was ever expecting an answer. "Don't talk about my vices if you don't wanna talk about yours."

"Just asking. Don't you wanna be a cook one day? How are you going to taste the food if you got a thick ass layer of tar on your tongue?"

"I'll manage. It's not like it'll ruin my taste buds that bad." Sanji sits on the ground next to Ace, sitting away from the blowing smoke. He's pretty sure the hospital staff know what Ace is doing when he comes outside, but seeing who their grandfather is, he probably pays them to overlook that fact, or something like that.

"Hey, Ace. Why are you and Luffy here?" Ace doesn't answer him; he simply extinguishes the flames and walks away. Sanji adds the question to his list of things not to bring up around Ace.

Sanji watches the interaction with the D. brothers and realizes Ace has the biggest brother complex he has ever seen a person have. He's quick to push the younger boy away from him, even tries to avoid him. However, he does show that he does care about his brother. It shows in the way he's quick to comfort Luffy after the boy wakes up from a nightmare crying.

- - - - - –

The day he's set to leave, Sanji tells Ace to get out of whatever mindset he's in. He tries not to get into others business, but he has a feeling if this continues, with Ace holding on to bitter feelings, he's going to self-destruct.

The older boy glares at him, but it doesn't intimidate Sanji like it did when they first met. "I'm saying it for your own good. And Luffy's too, because whatever you're going through, it's just the same for him."

Ace is silent, but Sanji can read his body language enough to tell that Ace is silently telling him that he's walking a thin line; but Sanji doesn't care. The worst Ace can do is hit him, and the blond's dealt with enough blows from the crap-geezer to where Ace's punch hardly hurts.

Nevertheless, the blow comes and a fist hit him directly in the eye.

"Quit sounding like that woman shrink." Ace demands. Sanji feels his eye swelling up fast.

"Someone has to!" is the reply. "You're hurting. I get that. But so is Luffy! "

He hears Ace say something under his breath, but Sanji can't make it out; he has a good idea what it is though. "Don't keep blaming yourself. Wishing you could have changed the past won't be do anything for the present."

"Quit sounding so wise. It sounds creepy." Ace tells him. "Still doesn't chance what I did."

"No it doesn't," Sanji admits. "But it might help you move forward a bit."

* * *

><p><strong>I felt I could have ended this better. Update (hopefully) coming soon!<strong>


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